we start and end
by Mariechen
Summary: After his battle with Invel Gray confronts Natsu about what Invel told him. Spoilers up to chapter 502 of the manga and I wrote this before chapter 503 was published.


Lucy was kneeling next to Brandish who passed out after her fight against Dimaria. Natsu was standing by her side talking with Happy about what their next step should be.

"Natsu!"

Lucy could hear Gray's voice booming over the whole battlefield.

She almost sighed in relief hearing Gray's voice. Knowing that one of her comrades was safe made her breathe just a little bit easier.

But as soon as she and Natsu turned around to face Gray her relieved sigh turned into a shaky intake of breath. Gray's whole body was covered in bruises and blood which looked like it was way too much to only by his.

As he was walking closer to them Lucy could really take his appearance in. And what she saw made her heart squeeze painfully. Looking in his eyes he saw that the normal glint in them was missing. And without that they looked empty and cold with only a small flame of rage and loss burning in them.

"Gray! Are you-," Lucy started but stopped herself as soon as Gray got near them and grabbed Natsu by his scarf to roughly pull him towards himself.

The dragon slayer growled at the ice mage in confusion.

"Tell. Me. Now." Gray demanded in a weirdly calm voice.

"What the hell are you doing, Gray?" Lucy screamed and tried to step between the two but both were ignoring her question. She could see that this was way more than their normal brawls that happened in the guild hall.

"Gray, what is your problem?" Natsu asked.

"My problem is," Gray said in his still too controlled voice, "that Invel told me."

"Told you what?"

"Who you are!" Gray screamed in Natsu's face loosing his calm demeanour.

Lucy could see how Natsu, the strong fierce Dragon Slayer who never lost his confidence in battle, visibly shrink together at Gray's words.

"Tell me! I need to hear this from you."

For a short while nothing could be heard on the battlefield. Natsu's eyes kept flickering back and forth between his friends. Searching for a way out. Trying to figure out what to tell them. But then Natsu looked firmly on the ground as he swallowed and then said, "I'm END. The strongest demon Zeref has ever created."

Lucy felt like someone was choking her. All the air in her lungs left in a shaky exhale and the air around them suddenly felt to thin to breathe properly.

"Natsu..."

Gray shoved Natsu back as if he burned himself. Lucy watched him stumble back and almost fall. Natsu had never looked so lost like right now. Sunken shoulders made him look like the whole world was weighing down on him.

"I can't believe you. You even kept this from Lucy?" Gray laughed hollowly looking at his friend.

Meanwhile Lucy could only stare at her partner. This couldn't be right. Her Natsu… one oft he strongest creations Zeref's?

They had been fighting countless battles together. Side by side. And now he suddenly was supposed to be her, no Fairy Tail's, enemy? She felt the whole world around her shift almost as if it fell apart and rearranged itself around her in a mere second.

Lucy made a step towards Natsu and whispered his name again. Even though they had been in this war with Alvarez for a while now all of it started to felt unreal. Now it was even more like an awful nightmare which she couldn't wake up from.

As she carefully studied her partner, who was oh so unusually quiet, she just knew that Gray spoke the truth. If he told them a lie why would Natsu just stand there looking as lost as she felt.

Standing there.

Avoiding everyone's gaze.

And then she heard Gray whisper. "Invel told me truth. You are the source of all my suffering."

Natsu's head snapped up as he let out a choked "What?"

This broken sound Natsu made snapped Lucy out of her quiet trance. This wasn't how Natsu was supposed to sound! "No! Gray! This is still Natsu. Our Natsu. Fairy Tail's Natsu. What gives you the right to say something like that?"

"What gives me the right? Invel was right. He's the cause of all my sorrows. Doloria, my parents, Ur, Ultear. And now Juvia. She is dead because of him. She sacrificed herself to save me. And now she's gone." A broken sob broke past his lips as a tear escaped his eyes.

Lucy felt her heart squeeze painfully as she felt tears running down her face. This was too much.

Her mind flashed to a scene only a few days ago. She was sitting next to Juvia in the guild hall and they traded stories of their year apart. She was just telling her a particular funny story. Juvia threw her head back and laughed so hard that it echoed through the whole guild hall. Out of the corner of her eye Lucy could see how Gray, who was talking with Erza at the bar, looked in their direction with a fond smile on his face. Lucy grinned at the ice mage who blushed and turned away again. She looked back at Juvia who had now an adorable blush on her face because of all the laughing. Her eyes sparkled as she started to tell one of her stories. That was only a few days ago and now she was gone?

Natsu fell on his knees, the last bit of the strength leaving him. His hands balled into fists next to him on the ground.

"She's gone and it's your fault." Gray screamed and charged towards Natsu who made no move to defend himself.

At the last moment before the attack hit, Happy flew in and grabbed Natsu as he made no move to defend himself. Happy landed just outside of Gray's attack range and started trying to talk to Natsu. Meanwhile Lucy changed into her Leo Stardress and kicked away one of Gray's ice shards with her Regulus kick.

"Gray, stop this! This is still Natsu."

But Gray didn't seem to care, too consumed by his loss and that he finally someone to blame. He launched another attack that she deflected.

And for the second time today Lucy vowed, "I will protect Natsu no matter the cost!"

"Gray-sama!"

Gray's whole body suddenly stilled as they all heard the voice carry over the battlefield.

All heads besides Gray's quickly turned to look into the direction of the voice. But Gray just stood there, frozen.

"Grayyy-sama!"

His arms still half raised he slowly turned around. Afraid that any sudden movements would wake him up. Make her disappear again.

Just a second later a very real body crashed into his and Juvia's arms circled around him. Finally realizing that this was real, that Juvia was back in his arms, alive, he exhaled shakily and buried his face in her hair.

"Thank god," Lucy whispered relieved as she saw her friend alive and well. When she started to hear Gray sob she turned away to give them some privacy.

She made her way towards Natsu and Happy who were both watching the couple with wide eyes. But as she stepped next to them they both turned their gaze towards her. Happy made a careful step in front of Natsu. As if he wanted to shield him from her. Her heart hurt at this sight. Natsu would never need protecting from her.

Slowly kneeling in front of him she took one of his hands in hers and looked him in the eyes. Confused, questioning and scared, oh god why was Natsu scared of her, he looked back.

She raised her other hand to his cheek, leaned her forehead against his as she promised, "We will get trough this. Together."

Hey! So this is my first piece of writing in years so please bear with me. I hope you had fun reading it anyways :D


End file.
